Social acceleration

Social acceleration (German: soziale Beschleunigung) is a sociological concept of time in late modernity developed by German sociologist Hartmut Rosa. It was featured in his book Beschleunigung. Die Veränderung der Zeitstrukturen in der Moderne (lit. 'Acceleration. The change in time structures in modernity').

A picture of Breugel's the harvesters. Various different labourers are at work in a corn field. On the front right, there is someone asleep by a tree, while others do various work tasks relating to the harvest.
Rosa views medieval labourers as belonging to a different temporal framework to those born after the Industrial Revolution, since time was structured around natural cycles.

Social acceleration describes a frenetic sense of time caused by the increase in technological advancement since the Industrial Revolution. Rosa argues that advances in communication, transportation, and production have made things happen faster, creating new expectations of efficiency and speed in all areas of life in ways that alienate people from the world.

Despite the increase in pace, life does not always seem faster. Rosa coined the term frenetic standstill in reference to this dynamic.

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